Following the gear claim mayhem, the TNT tent was an oasis in the middle of the desert. Kelsie and I parked ourselves at the edge and waited for our teammates to join us. We kept looking for Andrea, but we didn't see her anywhere. We had planned to jump back in the race to run Ernie in, but after all the hassle following the finish line, I didn't have the fortitude to go through it again.
One by one our teammates finished and joined us at the tent. Everyone had run really good races! It was so fun to share our excitement and experience. I called Mom and Dad, who had access to results online, and they looked up everyone who was still running and told us where they were (or where their chip had last registered them). I talked to Natasya once I knew she was done. She hadn't run the race she wanted, finishing with a positive split and running out of steam at the end. But she still finished in 4 hours! That's phenomenal to me.
Andrea finally appeared, with Ernie! She had given up on the gear claim (smart move) and jumped back in the race to run him in.
After about two hours at the tent, we all started making our way towards the hotel (within walking distance), which took us by the end of the race. A few of us stopped to cheer runners on as they climbed the last incline toward the finish. Our timing was great, as we saw our teammate, Kim, and her husband, and we shouted a loud "Go Team."
Following showers and beau- tification, a bunch of us met up for a post-race pre-dinner on the Riverwalk. It was my last chance to see everyone before I took off to meet family. Apparently I missed all kinds of fun at and after the victory party. Oh well! I'm just glad I was able to see Team Oz in San Antonio. I had so much fun! It was the perfect end to a fabulous season, and I would definitely do it all again!
Note to self: Next time you run a race, do NOT make a beeline for the gear claim area! Wait until the masses have gotten their things first.
Okay, just wanted to make sure I don't make the same mistake again.
You see, every race herds participants through a series of checkpoints following their finish, which can include medal donning, official photo/s, chip removal (although this may have been phased out with the advent of the new strips they're using), emergency blanket and towel giveaway, food freebies, and gear bag claim.
The setup for these steps in San Antonio was basically the same as in San Diego, which made sense. After all, Elite Racing runs both events (all the Rock and Roll marathons, actually) and basically mimicked their process. But they grossly miscalculated one aspect: the sheer volume of people. Talk about bottleneck city, oh my!
Andrea and I got stuck in a flood of people all trying to make their way through the exit system. First pain point: official photographs. Two people (only) were taking shots, and the guy we were in line for kept fumbling with his camera. The net result was a lengthy delay that prevented us from cooling down and stretching properly.
The free food options were actually quite plentiful and varied once we got to them, and we grabbed as much as we could balance in and under our arms. Next stop was to claim our gear. The UPS trucks were lined up in alphabetical order, just as they had been when we check our bags. However, there was apparently no system for how the bags within the trucks were organized. "P" wasn't a popular letter when I went to claim my bag, so I didn't have to wait too long - maybe 10 minutes or so. I just showed my bib number to the volunteers and my bag magically appeared. Great!
As I cut through the neighboring lines heading towards the TNT tent (where I was to meet Andrea), I saw Kelsie, so I stopped to wait with her. Let's just say the "M" line was popular. Imagine Black Friday with a line of people a mile long that wraps around buildings. Only this line lacked the anticipation and excitement of a deep discount and deal. Instead, it reeked of B.O. and was a lot like sitting in rush hour traffic going 0-10mph. We weren't in line 10 minutes before people's impatience reared its ugly head.
To top it off, Kelsie was noxious and her stomach was getting worse by the minute. I took her stuff, including her bib, so she could go take care of business. When she came back, I'm not sure I had moved at all. Seriously. There was a marathoner in front of me who was about to lose it. Anarchy was brewing all around. Kelsie disappeared again, which was just as well. The volunteers on the UPS truck were just standing there looking at the sea of runners in front of them. They were overwhelmed to the point of complete inaction. Fabulous.
Finally, participants jumped out of line and into the truck to try to help the situation. Good intention, poor execution. They started grabbing bags and yelling out names. Uh, Houston, we have a problem. Half the names they yelled out were people who were still running the race! And the line was so long that beyond 15 feet no one could hear anything anyway! Unbelievable. Really. Despite the zoo-like atmosphere, I managed to move up a little bit. When Kelsie reappeared, we were about 10 people away from the front of the line, but it had stopped moving again.
There seemed only one solution left: get on the truck! So Kelsie hopped inside and fished out her own bag. I guess if you want something done, sometimes you really have to do it yourself. I need to learn to run a race without checking gear at all.
It indeed took a couple of miles to warm up, but not as many as I thought. Lindsay and Jen were at the 2.7 mile mark, and we tossed our extra layers to them as we passed by.
The four of us were making really good time, maintaining about a 10 minute/mile pace. We should've placed ourselves a few corrals earlier because we were passing people left and right. On the one hand it was motivating but, on the other, it caused us to exert extra energy, as we were constantly looking for ways to cut through the masses and we zigzagged across the street too much.
We kept speeding up with every mile. Andrea was out in front blazing our trail. I was afraid we'd gone out too fast and that we would burn up before we got to the end! But I also appreciated being pushed.
Then, a few miles into the race, Andrea and I really had to pee. I was hoping I could just hold it, but that was not going to be an option. Since we were trying to PR, we couldn't afford to stand and wait for a port-o-potty. What to do?! Well, that leaves one option, and we took our chance after rounding a street corner by ducking into someone's driveway. Their bushes may grow a little greener and lusher come next spring!
We only lost about 30 seconds for our pit stop, but then we had to catch up with Ernie and Kelsie. It was hard work! We really sped up to find them, and it took at least a half mile before we saw Ernie's head in the crowd. I was ready to sit down and rest by the time we came up behind them, but that wasn't going to happen! It took a bit for me to "catch my breath."
The four of us stayed together for about 8 miles, which is a lot farther than I thought we would. Then Andrea and I pulled ahead just a little bit. I'm actually glad Ernie didn't keep pushing it with us -- he was running the full marathon and I would've felt awful if he ran out of steam before the end. Andrea and I stayed together for a few more miles, but we even separated around mile 11 or so. I kept looking over my shoulder for her and she was only 50 feet or so behind, but soon I couldn't see her anymore. I was on my own, for better or for worse.
Around the 11.5 mile mark, I became aware that the half- marathon course had met back up with the full marathon course (the marathoners split from us at mile 10.5), and the woman who was leading the full marathon race passed by, smoking me! That was right about the time my knees and quads started to hurt, but I thought, "if she can smoke me after running 24-25 miles, I can sure as heck keep going!" Looking at the race clock, I knew I had a chance to break the 2-hour mark, and I used the woman as inspiration. However, I knew it would take an act of God for it to happen. I was just running out of juice despite being well-fueled.
In my head, I was like the little engine that could, and I just put one foot in front of the other. That's all I could do. When I turned the corner with about a half mile to go, I saw a hill in front of me. What?! Are you kidding? At the end?! Okay, it wasn't a real hill; it was more like an incline and, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't very long (maybe the length of a football field?), but still, it was a hill! Who designed this course?
My knees and quads were burning by the time I hit the top and turned the corner into the final stretch. I didn't have enough left in me to kick it up, so I just tried to maintain my speed to the end. Crossing the finish line felt so good! It certainly was a different kind of accomplishment compared to the San Diego race. I got my medal and kept walking toward the finisher's area, but I pulled off to the side to wait for Andrea. I knew she wasn't far behind me. Indeed, she crossed the finish line less than two minutes after me. We both PR'd by a lot! It was awesome.
Here are my race stats:
- Average pace - 9:18 (waaay faster than I ever thought I could run)
- 5k - 30:33
- 6.1 miles - 59:29
- 10 miles - 1:35:14
- 13.1 miles - 2:01:46!
To view official photos of me during and after the race, just enter my last name on this website!
To view the course map, click here.
Following the gear claim mayhem, the TNT tent was an oasis in the middle of the desert. Kelsie and I parked ourselves at the edge and waited for our teammates to join us. We kept looking for Andrea, but we didn't see her anywhere. We had planned to jump back in the race to run Ernie in, but after all the hassle following the finish line, I didn't have the fortitude to go through it again. 
Andrea finally appeared, with Ernie! She had given up on the gear claim (smart move) and jumped back in the race to run him in. 
Following showers and beau- tification, a bunch of us met up for a post-race pre-dinner on the Riverwalk. It was my last chance to see everyone before I took off to meet family. Apparently I missed all kinds of fun at and after the victory party. Oh well! I'm just glad I was able to see Team Oz in San Antonio. I had so much fun! It was the perfect end to a fabulous season, and I would definitely do it all again!
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